Hockey roundup: Willmar Cardinals power past River Lakes Stars

Michael Lyne, Tom Elliott, Joe Brown, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·5 min read

Jan. 11—PAYNESVILLE — The Willmar Cardinals girls hockey team put up a team effort in defeating River Lakes 3-1 on Tuesday at Koronis Civic Arena.

Willmar, ranked 18th in Class A, improves its record to 8-4-1.

"All three lines played well and all the defensemen played well too," Willmar head coach Eric Setrum said. "This is the time of year that we really focus on and they are doing a good job of coming together. We have different contributors nightly."

Willmar saw goals from Sophia and Avery Quinn and Chloe Lownsbury. Lownsbury's tally came in the second period on the power-play and proved to be the game-winner.

Lownsbury, a junior forward, has two power-play goals this season, the only two for the Cards all season.

"We work so hard on trying to improve on our power play. It feels really good to get one after a while," Setrum said. "For one to go in tonight, it was big for us."

Cardinals sophomore goaltender Erin Eilers earned her fourth win of the season, making 29 saves. Willmar outshot River Lakes, 34-30.

"We were pretty confident that we could put pressure on them five-on-five. We felt we were deeper and a little bit quicker," Setrum said. "I would have liked to see a few more offensive chances but our zone time during five-on-five was good, so that's a good sign for us."

River Lakes (5-10-1) got its lone goal from junior Brianne Wileman late in the second period. Assists went to junior Aubree McDonagh and freshman Abby Storms.

Willmar plays host to Fergus Falls at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Willmar High School. Fergus Falls ranks No. 12 in Class A. River Lakes plays Brainerd/Little Falls at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at the Koronis Civic Arena in Paynesville.

Willmar (8-4-1) 1 1 1 — 3

River Lakes (5-10-1) 0 1 0 — 1

FIRST PERIOD — (1) W: Sophia Quinn (Chloe Lownsbury, Becca Dawson), 6:05.

SECOND PERIOD — (2) W: Lownsbury (Makenna Larson, Dawson), 2:38 PP ... (3) RL: Brianna Wileman (Aubree McDonagh, Abby Storms).

THIRD PERIOD — (4) W: Avery Quinn (unassisted), 1:47 EN.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Willmar: Erin Eilers 29/30 ... River Lakes: Kaydence Roeske 32/34

Sydney Leonard scored three goals and three assists to lead Mound-Westonka/Southwest Christian to the victory over Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato at the Litchfield Civic Arena.

Grett Pioske had two goals and two assists and Greer Hardacre recorded a pair of goals for Mound-Westonka in the Wright County Conference victory.

Sophia Schmidt made 19 saves for the shutout.

Mound-Westonka/SWC (11-5-0) 2 5 2 — 9

Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato (8-7-1) 0 0 0 — 0

FIRST PERIOD — (1) MW: Camryn Hargreaves (Greta Pioske, Sydney Leonard) 9:42, PP .... (2) MW: Greer Hardacre (Leonard) 11:53.

SECOND PERIOD — (3) MW: Leonard (Ali Butler) 6:25 ... (4) MW: Pioske (Claire Bolen) 10:18 ... (5) MW: Leonard (Lizzy Callahan, Natalie Miner) 10:28 ... (6) MW: Hardacre (Camryn Hargreaves, Pioske) 12:53 ... (7) MW: Pioske (Hargreaves, Butler) 16:32.

THIRD PERIOD — (8) MW: Lizzy Callahan (Leonard) 7:54 ... (9) MW: Leonard (Rachel Erickson) 13:15.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Mound-Westonka/SWC: Sophia Schmidt 19/19 ... Litchfield/D-C: Kira Kuechle 47/56

Nine players scored goals for Sartell in its Central Lakes Conference victory at Willmar.

The Sabres out-shot the Cardinals, 40-16. Noah Hacker made all 16 saves for the shutout.

Willmar's next game is at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Sauk Rapids at the Willmar Civic Center Arena.

Sartell (9-3-0) 2 2 5 — 9

Willmar (4-5-0) 0 0 0 — 0

FIRST PERIOD — (1) S: Gavin Welsh (unassisted) 5:47 ... (2) S: Jack Scmitz (Nolan Smith) 6:44.

SECOND PERIOD — (3) S: Elliot Testa (Baylor Stebbins, Anthony Colatrella) 6:31 ... (4) S: Bennett Crane (Welsh, Shaun Paulson) 6:47.

THIRD PERIOD — (5) S: Carter Bollinger (Teddy McCabe, Testa) 2:15 ... (6) S: Colatrella (Stebbins, Testa) 4:52 ... (7) S: Smith (Scmitz, Kyan Reider) 6:58 ... (8) S: Stebbins (Bollinger) 10:13 ... (9) S: Caden Ostman (Bollinger, Crane) 14:14.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Sartell: Noah Hacker 16/16 ... Willmar: Braxton Heid 31/40

Blake Decker scored a pair of goals to help Mound-Westonka to the Wright County Conference victory over Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato at the David M. Thaler Sports Center in Mound.

Jaxon Gustafson scored a goal for the Dragons at 11:35 of the third period.

Litchfield/D-C (9-3-1) 0 0 1 — 1

Mound-Westonka (6-6-0) 2 3 2 — 7

FIRST PERIOD — (1) MW: Jonathan Scherven (Luke Jewison, Jacob Hansberger) 13:27 ... (2) MW: Joseph Pouchnik (unassisted) 15:16.

SECOND PERIOD — (3) MW: Pouchnik (Tyler Thurston, Camron Peterson) 8:23 ... (4) MW: Blake Decker (unassisted) 9:37 ... (5) MW: Pounchnik (Thurston) 11:50.

THIRD PERIOD — (6) MW: Jackson Henningsgaard (unassisted) 2:01 ... (7) LDC: Jaxon Gustafson (Braxton Graupmann, Braden Olson) 11:35 ... (8) MW: Deck (Peterson, Brandon Zierke) 13:24.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — Litchfield/D-C: Travis Halonen (36:01) 22/28, Chase Zwilling (14:59) 9/10 ... Mound-Westonka: Mason Evenson 22/23

Jacob Phillippi and Blake Schultz each scored a pair of goals to lead River Lakes past Sauk Rapids in a Central Lakes Conference game at Sports Arena East in Sauk Rapids.

The Stars' first line of Philippi, Schultz and Bradey Blaschko accounted for four goals and nine assists.

River Lakes (3-9-1) 3 2 1 — 6

Sauk Rapids (1-10-0) 2 0 1 — 3

FIRST PERIOD — (1) SR: Hunter Behling (Nolan Thell) 1:30, PP ... (2) RL: Kaleb Cremers (Blake Schultz, Bradey Blaschko) 12:57 ... (3) SR: Jett Wheeler (Nick Anderson ) 13:09 ... (4) RL: Jacob Philipppi (Bl. Schultz) 15:07 ... (5) RL: Bl. Schultz (Philippi, Blaschko) 16:59.

SECOND PERIOD — (6): RL: Philippi (Bl. Schultz, Bennett Schultz) 2:59, PP ... (7) RL: Anthony Fink (Bl. Schultz, Philippi) 14:29, PP.

THIRD PERIOD — (8) SR: Teagan Dodge (Behling) 12:49 ... (9) RL: Bl. Schultz (Edwin Kramer) 14:26.

GOALIE SAVES/SHOTS — River Lakes: Ashton Fischer 13/16 ... Sauk Rapids: Zander Parker 26/32